South Korea's U.S. April crude imports rise 32.1% but broader demand slumps

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s U.S. crude oil imports in April increased 32.1% from a year earlier, although overall crude imports fell as some refiners lowered run rates to cope with a slump in demand, customs data showed on Friday.

In April, U.S. crude imports were 1.92 million tonnes, or 468,244 barrels per day (bpd), compared with 1.45 million tonnes a year earlier and 1.68 million tonnes in March. The United States ranked as South Korea’s No. 3 crude supplier after Saudi Arabia and Kuwait last month.

South Korea’s intake of U.S. crude oil jumped following the end of U.S. sanction waivers in May 2019, which allowed South Korea to buy Iranian crude oil, mainly condensate, or an ultra-light form of crude oil.

With the sanctions in place, South Korea’s imports of Iranian crude oil, have remained zero since May 2019.

South Korea’s crude imports from Saudi Arabia, its top crude supplier, were 3.04 million tonnes in April, or 741,841 bpd, down 15.4% from 3.59 million tonnes a year earlier, the data showed.

In total, South Korea, the world’s fifth-largest crude oil importer, shipped in 11.02 million tonnes of crude oil in April, or 2.69 million bpd, down 13.6% from 12.76 million tonnes last year.

South Korean refiners such as SK Energy and Hyundai Oilbank have lowered their run rates as fuel demand has dented in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak worldwide. Hyundai Oilbank’s No.2 360,000-bpd crude distillation unit shut for maintenance from April 8 to May 21.

For the January-April period, South Korea imported 46.35 million tonnes of crude oil, or 2.81 million bpd, down 7.1% from 49.90 million tonnes over the same period a year earlier.

The country’s final crude oil imports data from state-run Korea National Oil Corp (KNOC) is due later this month.